Yet Abraham—peace be upon him—meant neither of those two arguments, as has been explained elsewhere. It has been shown that each attempt to infer temporal origination or contingency merely from motion is unsound, a point affirmed by the majority of rational people among the prophets’ followers, the mutakallimūn, and the leading philosophers.
What actually concerned Abraham was that his people worshipped the stars even while acknowledging the Lord of all worlds. They were idolaters, each person choosing a particular star to venerate and from which to seek his needs, as has already been indicated. For that reason the Friend, upon him be peace, declared:
“Have you considered what you have been worshipping—you and your forefathers of old? Truly, they are an enemy to me, except for the Lord of all worlds” (Q 26:75–77).
The Exalted also says:
“You have indeed in Abraham and those with him a good example, when they said to their people, ‘We disown you and whatever you worship apart from God. We reject you, and between us and you enmity and hatred have arisen forever—until you believe in God alone’—except for Abraham’s saying to his father, ‘I shall surely seek forgiveness for you, though I can avail you nothing against God’” (Q 60:4).
Thus God commanded believers to emulate Abraham and those with him in their declaration to their people: “We are free of you and of whatever you worship besides God.”
Likewise, God relates in Sūrat al-Ṣāffāt that Abraham said to his people:
“What do you think of the Lord of all worlds?” (Q 37:87), and: “Do you worship what you yourselves carve, when God created you and all that you do?” (Q 37:95–96).
His people, then, did not deny the existence of the Lord of all worlds, nor did Abraham’s words, “This is my Lord,” ever mean, “This is the One who created the heavens and the earth”—whether he spoke them as an argument against his people, by way of hypothesis, or otherwise. No human being has ever claimed that any star, or that the sun or the moon, brought the entire heavens into being.